A little offstage bonding

By Emily Dunn and Josephine Tovey

ONSTAGE, they will be Little Women's wholesome March sisters. Offstage, the co-stars of the new Kookaburra musical production of Louisa May Alcott's novel, will find more contemporary ways of bonding.

"Get drunk," suggested Octavia Barron-Martin, who plays Meg.

"Facebook," said Erica Lovell, the youngest, who plays Amy.

Advertisement

The castmates, who include Kate Maree Hoolihan and Jodie Harris, were last week announced as the stars of the show, to open in Sydney in November.

After a series of "jukebox" musicals - including Ben Elton's Queen musical, We Will Rock You - Hoolihan, who plays the heroine Jo, is thrilled the show has a classic story.

"I won't have Ben Elton saying, 'Let's change this line, it's not funny. And page four. And page seven.' And that was on opening night!"

Trisha Noble - another veteran of the rock musical circuit with roles in Shout and Dusty - will play the girls' saintly mother. The actresses are also confident their performances will live up to those of past stars, in more ways than one. A boozy night out? "Katharine Hepburn would have done that," Hoolihan pointed out.

SHE DOES IT HER WAY

Asher Keddie no longer receives sideway glances from shopkeepers who fear she may have the same kleptomaniac tendencies as Julia, her character on the award-winning drama series

Love My Way.

"That was the beauty of that character," Keddie said. "She changed in people's perception over the three series, which was wonderful for me. I have different conversations about her now."

The role in the pay-television series saw Keddie receive a Logie nomination in the industry-voted category of Most Outstanding Actress in 2005 and 2006. With the third and final season screening last year, Keddie and her co-stars- including Claudia Karvan - are also up for Logies this year.

Keddie is also nominated, for a second time, in the category of Most Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor, at tonight's ASTRA awards, the pay-TV equivalent of the Logies. However, she won't be there to collect, should she win, due to a gruelling schedule of night shoots for her role in Hugh Jackman's Wolverine.

Wolverine will be Keddie's second feature - she is also in the yet-to-be-released Beautiful- since finishing Love My Way 18 months ago. It is the role of Julia, however, that most still want to talk about. "It is such an enduring show and it is quite amazing to be still be recognised for something we started working on over four years ago.

"I still speak to people on a weekly basis that are just discovering it now."

OH, YOU KIDMANS

One star who will be walking the red carpet at the ASTRA Awards is Foxtel darling and presenter of

From Here To Maternity on the W Channel, Antonia Kidman. Last year Kidman won the coveted Favourite Female Personality, just two months after giving birth to her fourth child and a week after her marriage, to Angus Hawley, broke down. Tonight, Kidman is the favourite to win the award again and word is her dress - custom-made by Alex Perry- again will be the one to beat in the fashion stakes.

THE RATINGS RACE

The embattled Channel Nine got good news and bad news during the week and there was enough of the former to suggest that Seven won't have an easy victory this year, reports our weekly ratings correspondent David Dale.

Having axed the game show The Power Of Ten because it pulled fewer than 800,000 viewers, Nine found its replacement, David Attenborough's Life In Cold Blood, charmed 1.3 million in the mainland capitals on Monday. Smart move.

Nine then felt confident in axing The Moment Of Truth, which got only 741,000 on Tuesday, and replacing it from tomorrow with the venerable 20 To 1, hosted by Bert Newton, a star of Attenborough's vintage if not his authority. Nostalgia may not be what it was but it can pull more viewers than public humiliation.

On Wednesday, having refrained from axing My Kid's A Star because it just topped 800,000 in its opening week, Nine found that the second episode was down to 780,000 - suggesting a short future for the talented juniors.

Wednesday, however, had a happy ending for Nine when new Aussie melodrama Canal Road managed a respectable 1.1 million at 9.30pm. On Thursday, Gordon Ramsay performed even better reheated, rather than fresh, with a repeat of his Kitchen Nightmares pulling 1.62 million.

REWIND Tom Burlinson

Long before Australian Idol and Michael Buble made swing popular with young people, Tom Burlinson had a very unhip affection for Ol' Blue Eyes. Back in the 1970s, the Australian performer, now-renowned for his Sinatra tribute shows, was one of the few teenagers who admitted to liking the sultan of swing.

"Back then Frank Sinatra was definitely not cool," Burlinson said. "My friends used to think it was a bit strange that I loved him."'

Like any self-respecting teenager of the era, Burlinson was obsessed with the Beatles but he fell for Sinatra at 17 while listening to his parents records. However, his first attempt at impersonating the legend's vocal range and tone - performing I Won't Dance at his high school graduation in 1973 - did not go smoothly. "It was nothing like singing along with a record," Burlinson said. "It was an absolute disaster."

Thankfully, the man also known for his role in the film The Man From Snowy River, refined his performance skills and has since carved out a career performing Sinatra and lending his voice to biopics. His performances this weekend mark the 10-year anniversary of his tribute show Frank - A Life in Song, and give him a chance to make good on a boast he made back in 1973. After his dismal debut performance, Burlinson swore he would one day sing I Won't Dance at that "new joint", the Sydney Opera House. " So that's what I'm going to do in these shows."